TORONTO — Toronto-based Fairmont Raffles Hotels International has raised $847-million of capital through new cash-rich investors. Of that, $467 million was raised by selling newly issued shares, representing 40 per cent of the shares outstanding to Voyager Partners Ltd., a company based in the Cayman Islands.

In a separate deal, Fairmont agreed to sell a Singapore-based hotel to Qatar’s sovereign wealth firm, Qatari Diar, for $275-million, with an agreement that Fairmont will win $105 million worth of management contracts to run some of their properties over the next five years.

Qatari Diar is described as the largest purchaser of luxury hotels in the world. “We are becoming more of an asset-like company, whose business is in brands and management contracts, not the bricks and mortar of real estate,” said William Fatt, Fairmont’s CEO. “2010 will be a fantastic year for us. [We] have the wind at our backs.”

There are nine new Fairmont properties coming on stream in the next year, including the Fairmont Pittsburgh, the Makkah Clock Royal Tower in Saudi Arabia, the two-year refurbishment of The Savoy in London and the Peace Hotel in Shanghai.

 

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